It’s maybe the first time in the history of Chilean cinema that a sequel works and might even be considered superior to the first film of a projected series. In this case, the original film by young director Che Sandoval was called ‘Te creís la más linda… pero erís la más puta (2009), which was about a young Chilean man who wandered in the night in the search of sex, just to never find it, was a funny collection of vignettes about the night life of Santiago de Chile.

In that 2009 film, one of the funniest moments was when our protagonist talked to, and then stole the hat of an older man, who was also in search of a one night stand. This new film, ‘Soy mucho mejor que vos’, is the tale of how the night of the older man with the hat turned out. That man is nicknamed “Naza” (played by Chilean film director Sebastián Brahm), who has recently gone through a mental breakdown.

As he goes from bar to bar, then to wandering the streets, the film in a way mimics the structure of the the original film. Here though the subjects are less adolescent and more adult, even though the attitudes of the protagonist are most commonly associated with that of a horny 15 year old… practically proposing to anything that moves, asking for prostitutes (but paying the most miserable amount possible), or following women to their apartments in the hope that they are looking for the same thing as him.

The principal matter that transcends in between the constant wandering, that continues through the night and into dawn and most of the morning, is that his wife has made the decision to leave and go to Spain, where an ex-boyfriend will meet her. Since he doesn’t approve of the trip, nor to the decision of his wife taking their children with her, he wanders off trying to get some kind of revenge by sleeping with another woman.

He at first doesn’t achieve this, and when given the opportunity he shies away from it, hence he isn’t only a horny bastard, but he’s also a coward, not able to really grow out of his thirst and actually do something about it. It’s a complex character to be sure, but also in the way he speaks about his beliefs, especially his objectification of women makes him feel the worst person in the world.

The exploration of the adult stuck in adolescence has been an interesting angle to broach in the last few years of cinema (let’s take a look at Simon Pegg in ‘The World’s End’ (2013) as the most recent example), especially when this character is actually a failure at everything that he tries to do. He has an image of himself as the coolest dude, and hence the title of the movie (in Spanish, “Soy mucho mejor que voh”), where his own superiority makes him unaware of his mediocre status as a human being.

In a sense, the film is also better than its earlier installment because Sandoval has a more controlled way of shooting the film. His visual language is tighter. The earlier film was, in a way, the way that the director had to demonstrate his abilities when he came out of university. This is a more mature work that can finally be seen by everyone in Chile. It was one of the best Chilean films of last year (premiered at BAFICI 2013, where I saw it), and it can be seen in most theaters this week in Chile.

Amicus Productions: Horror-Scifi

Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965)
The Skull (1965)
Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965)
The Psychopath (1966)
Dalek's Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (1966)
The Terrornauts (1967)
The Deadly Bees (1967)
They Came from Beyond Space (1967)
Torture Garden (1967)
The Mind of Mr. Soames (1970)
The House That Dripped Blood (1971)
I, Monster (1971)
Tales from the Crypt (1972)
What Became of Jack and Jill? (1972)Asylum (1972)
The Vault of Horror (1973)-- And Now the Screaming Starts! (1973)
From Beyond the Grave (1974)
Madhouse (1974)
The Beast Must Die (1974)
The Land That Time Forgot (1975)
At the Earth's Core (1976)
The People That Time Forgot (1977)
The Monster Club (1981)

Hammer Pictures: Horror-Fantasy-Sci Fi

The Mystery of the Marie Celeste (1935)
Man in Black (1949)
Dick Barton Strikes Back (1949)
Dick Barton at Bay (1950)
Four Sided Triangle (1953)
Spaceways (1953)
The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)
X: The Unknown (1956)The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
Quatermass 2 (1957)
The Abominable Snowman (1957)
Tales of Frankenstein (1958)Dracula (1958)The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959)
The Mummy (1959)
The Stranglers of Bombay (1960)The Brides of Dracula (1960)
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960)
The Terror of the Tongs (1961)
Taste of Fear (1961)
The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
Shadow of the Cat (1961)
Captain Clegg (1962)
The Phantom of the Opera (1962)
Paranoiac (1963)
The Damned (1963)
Maniac (1963)
The Kiss of the Vampire (1963)
The Old Dark House (1963)
Nightmare (1964)
The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)
The Gorgon (1964)
The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964)
Fanatic (1965)
She (1965)
The Nanny (1965)
The Plague of the Zombies (1966)Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)
The Reptile (1966)
Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966)
The Witches (1966)
One Million Years B.C. (1966)
Slave Girls (1967)
The Mummy's Shroud (1967)
Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
Journey to Midnight (1968)
Journey into Darkness (1968)
The Vengeance of She (1968)
The Lost Continent (1968)
The Devil Rides Out (1968)
"Journey to the Unknown" (1968)Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968)
Frankenstein Must be Destroyed (1969)
Moon Zero Two (1969)Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)
Crescendo (1970)
The Vampire Lovers (1970)
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970)
The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)Scars of Dracula (1970)
Lust for a Vampire (1971)
Countess Dracula (1971)
Creatures the World Forgot (1971)
Twins of Evil (1971)
Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971)
Hands of the Ripper (1971)
Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971)
Vampire Circus (1972)Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)
Straight on Till Morning (1972)
Fear in the Night (1972)
Demons of the Mind (1972)The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)
Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter (1974)
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)
To the Devil a Daughter (1976)
"Hammer House of Horror" (1980)
"Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense" (1984)
Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror (1984)
Beyond the Rave (2008)
Let Me In (2010)The Resident (2011)